Rob has been working in and
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than 25 years, on shows around
the world. He wonders if this
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WWW.LSIONLINE.COM • APRIL 2020 53Coronavirus information sources | by Rob Halliday
C
As you might imagine, this is not the Tools I’d been
planning for this month. And I live in hope that by the
time it appears it’s not actually one you need to read,
worst case because what it contains is still relevant but you’ve
already found it for yourself, best case because things have
sorted themselves out and the world has moved on.
But if not... this month is a little different; not one tool, but
a selection of useful sources of information about this little virus
that’s appeared in all our lives.
To start, the ‘big hitters’ - the governments and the
independent organisations that span the world independent of
national status. Your country’s own government website should
be your first port of call since it will provide the ‘official’ line
on the status of things where you live, including healthcare
and travel advice. In the UK, that can be found at http://www.gov.uk/
coronavirus.
While the advice is generally the same, it is also worth
looking at the information offered by other countries, with
the Centre for Disease Control in America being another
good source (particularly because it is clearly a scientific
source, unafraid of admitting that it doesn’t yet have all of
the information about the virus or answers to every question,
unlike some more populist or political sites): http://www.cdc.gov/
coronavirus.
Offering the overall global perspective rather than attempting
to descend into country-by-country isolationism (an approach
unlikely to work well on a global issue like this), is the World
Health Organization (www.who.int).
It is worth adding that in the global community in which we
work, a good approach is just to talk to friends and colleagues
in countries that are ahead of you in the virus’ progress. In many
cases, tracking what other countries did at each phase against
how far behind your country is in the number
of infections lets you predict with remarkable
accuracy what will happen next, and when it
will happen, where you live.
Your preferred, reputable news source
will also be providing regular updates on
this rapidly developing situation. Those news
organisations, who over the last few yearshave adopted daily liveblogging-style rolling reporting, rather
than just providing sporadic updates in line with their print
edition or broadcast news, are being kept busy now and are
the best sources for regular updates. Of course, they also have
traditional print pages to fill, and while some of the articles
about working from home have themes already familiar to those
of us who’ve long had reason to worry about what’s seen in the
background of our Skype conference calls, others, such as this
one (//plasa.me/o7cnw) on why traditional soap and water is
more effective at killing the coronavirus than trendy (but now
hard to get hold of) alcohol-based hand cleaners are genuinely
fascinating; particularly when backed up by this one (//plasa.
me/cdc) explaining that the water doesn’t even need to be hot
to be effective.
Lastly, if you want a more pragmatic, less overwhelmingly
scary take from within our industry, then if I might be indulged
to mention another publication - have a look at
this editorial from CX magazine in Australia:
//plasa.me/3t3lm.
With that, I wish you - all of us - the very
best until we meet here again next month,
when hopefully, just hopefully, we might start
to get little glimpses of when normality will
return. ICall us for pricing and availability
03330 142 101
stage-electrics.co.ukProlyte Trussing and Staging now in stock
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Trade Enquiries welcome
Photo: CDC on Unsplash